The basis for and progression of American industrialization is a matter of vital economic, social, and historical significance. The manner and the pace by which agricultural and manufacturing activities changed from 1780 to 1860 not only redefined the lives of farmers, laborers, entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers but also the structure, organization, and fortunes of an emerging nation. Nevertheless, in light of the sweeping and multifaceted economic and social implications of economic growth and industrialization, it is not surprising that these phenomena have had and will likely continue to have alternative explanations and interpretations. For example, did regional economic development flow from specialization or did it originate with more broad-based economic expansion?

David R. Meyer (professor of sociology and urban studies, Brown University) offers an interpretation of the origins of American industrialization that is consistent with the predictions of Alexander Hamilton, and divergent from the perspectives of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Meyer finds that a region can, and in this case did, develop multiple sectors of its economy simultaneously. As defined by the author, America's initial manufacturing belt was located along the eastern seaboard and stretched from the markets and hinterlands of Boston to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore—it was also an area that had rising agricultural productivity and an emerging manufacturing base decades earlier than is commonly appreciated. As Meyer concludes, the region “experienced integrated, mutually reinforcing transformations of agriculture and industry” (p. 11). Because the author draws on the academic disciplines of geography, sociology, history, economics, and urban studies, this study offers a coherent and reasonably comprehensive perspective. Although the idea that any particular region need not necessarily specialize in either farming or manufacturing is not unfamiliar to economic historians, this thorough and scholarly study offers an interesting and insightful analysis of the American northeast from 1780 to 1860.

Economic progress is rarely a simple process, and Meyer's study provides an insightful historical picture of the complexity and multifaceted nature of economic change. Indeed, one of the most appealing aspects of Meyer's analysis is his explanation of industrial development as a regional phenomenon. Within regions, there were similar enough transformations to fit within his general explanatory model, yet diverse enough to account for specific differences relative to resource endowments, industrial concentrations, and investor strategies. By explaining the course of economic growth over several decades and over a similar but diverse geographic background the author provides an explanation for the origins of American industrialization that encompasses multiple sectors and locations within the antebellum economy. The course and pace of economic development was influenced not only by the abundance or want of a number of factors but also the relative interrelationships of factors and events. The author concludes that from the early nineteenth century greater agricultural productivity allowed expansion in eastern workshops and that in the years after 1835 the expansion of Midwestern farm output enhanced that trend. A regional model of industrialization also allows the author to draw parallels and distinctions with the progression or lack of industrialization in the nation's other antebellum regions, the Midwest and South. Agricultural productivity significantly assisted Midwestern development but differed from eastern development because of such factors as scale and distribution. Thus the antebellum Midwest emerged as an integral part of the nation's manufacturing belt, whereas the South did not.

Meyer has produced a balanced and well-documented study that offers a number of interesting and useful statistical tables, figures, and maps that will make this historical analysis more accessible to a variety of interested readers including but not limited to sociologists, geographers, historians, and economists. It is rich with empirical data and presented within the context and observations of contemporary writers, public figures, business and community leaders.